Maspero (P. 8. B. A. xx. 135) draws attention to a passage in the
funerary texts of the New Kingdom referring to the notion that the Ba,
or soul, received refreshment from the midst of a sycomore tree.
He also analyzes the common formula of adoration dnez her-h as a survival
in words of a savage form of greeting, and would translate it, "rubbing
the face "of god or man to draw his attention. In Rev. da I'Sist. ties
Bels. xxxvi. the same writer finishes his study of the " Table d'Offrandes "
part of the funerary ritual, and ib. 406, identifies the provenance of the
inscriptions in Part III. of Diimichen's Peduamenap, published after the
author's death. They are as follows :—Pis. L, ii. from Peduamenap,
chamber xii., on door to chamber v. (cf. A. Z. 1883, 14, and Todtb.
cxxxvii. A). Pis. iii.—xxv-ii. Book of Hades viz. pis. v.—xxiv. from
Berlin coffin, No. 49, pis. xxv.—xxvii. from Berlin coffin No. 29. Pis.
xxxiii.—ix. from temple of Dendereh. Pis. xxx.—xxxi. Incantations
against serpents, from Peduamenap.

Booh of the Dead. The translation by Renouf unhappily ceased with
the June number of the P. 8. B. A., but the continuation is promised by
M. NaA'Ille. A very useful edition in 3 vols. Text, Vocabulary, and
Translation, has been issued by Budge : the best text of the New
Kingdom has generally been chosen for it where this was possible. The
vocabulary is very full, and the translation is preceded by chapters on the
MSS., with some typical facsimiles, and the mythology. The Papyrus
of Nu, which furnishes many new chapters to the Text, is a recent acqui-
sition of the British Museum. It is hardly necessary to warn the reader
of the utter corruptness of almost the whole test of the Book of the
Dead.

Borchardt (A. Z. xxxv. 116) notes and explains the prominence
given to the head and the eye in the hieroglyphs on many coffius of
the Middle Kingdom, and contends that the elaborately-painted coffins
with numerous doorways were not meant to imitate houses : in the
early forms the doorway is single, and in the later forms of the Middle
Kingdom it is given only with meaningless repetition.

Wiedemann (Bee. de Tr. xx. 141) notes the importance of the head
regarded as the seat of life, and considers (ib. 143) that the sarcophagi
sculptured architecturally represent a tomb rather than a house.